Currently when using the administrator account I log into the Central admin, open the SSP admin screen and click on search settings. I will get a 403 forbidden error with the message "You are not authorized to view this page". Now this is the god account and I have verified the access level on all settings and it is confirmed. I have also checked that from the SSP admin screen I can do every other command with no problem. It seems that the ssp/admin/_layouts/searchsspsettings.aspx page is the only page I cannot access with my admin account. This is a problem since this is a key page. I had the default content access account page bookmarked and was able to access it directly with the admin account. I have search everywhere and am waiting on a response from Microsoft support, but it has been 2 days and may be longer. Any assistance that could be provided would be great. note: I have done all of the basics like check the access accounts, passwords, IISreset, rebooted and such. Thanks.

I have the same problem. One of my users mentioned the search page gave the error that it couldn't connect to the query server. Rebooted the server and that worked again. But when i try to go to the search settings on the shared services it gives an 403 now. I know for shure that I could enter it some time ago. Anyone suggestions what is wrong?

Isolved a problem with thesearch function by creating a new Shared Service Provider and moving every sites to that. Have you tried that? Best Regards Mart1n0

I created a new SSP and new app pools and web sites to go with it and checked search settings page. I get the same error on the new SSP as well. The search for success continues.

...got stuck with this error for a couple of days and almost went crazy. To avoid the same thing happening to you guys, here is the solution to the problem. It is related to another problem I had a couple of months ago when trying to set up search scheduling (I think it is KB article 926959): On the server running central admin (or if you like, on all web servers in the farm)... ...make sure that you can see the Sharing and Security tab in the Windows tasks folder (usually C:\Windows\Tasks) byopen a command prompt and type attrib s %windir% \tasks. Browse to %windir%\tasks, right click and select properties.Grantthe WSS_WPG group Read and Write permissions on the tasks folder. Open a command prompt and type attrib +s %windir% \tasks to reset the tasks folder to its default view. Try to access the Search Settings page again and (hopefully...) Vola!

Tnxs, my problem is solved

This post solved out problem. We were experiencing the described issue in a medium farm deployment with a deadicated index server. For us this fix needed to be applied to the Index Server not to the box running central admin. But it should be noted that in many cases they may be one in the same. Thanks,

Does anyone have an alternative fix, this doesnt seem to be working for me. Any help would be appreciated. thxs

I had to reboot the server before it finally worked. Did you try that?

I just updated SP1 and got the same problem http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926959 All accounts you usefor SSP should be in WSS_WPG

I got 403 Forbidden after SP1 update. After that update, security inside DCOM OSearch was wrongly established (ONLY IN INDEX SERVER). I solved aplying next command: Stsadm o osearch action start If it don't work for you, try to provide rights permissions in DCom OSearch object. Regards Jose Miguel Fuertes

Thanks jorgen & ericdino, you just saved my job!!

One key point to remember is that Search Settings seem to apply to the server performing the INDEX role and thus the fixes need to be applied to the INDEX server which I understand in many cases it might be the same as the one hosting the Central Admin but in many cases it is not (in my case) and we are misguided by our instict to go to the Central Admin server for solution because we access these settings from the Central Admin and Shared Services Provider interface.Bottom line: After applying SP1 to my 5 server farm I got http 403 forbiden errors accessing Search Settings and the solution that worked was granting the WSS_WPG local group on the INDEX server Local Activation and Local Access to the osearch DCOM object.Jrgen and Ericdino point to a solution http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926959that solves a similar problem but when trying to change content sources and crawl schedules.I have a feeling that the complete solution includes both the rights to the Tasks folder and the DCOM objects.If anyone needs the exact steps to do this let me know.

Not yet sure if this resolution has helped solve my SharePoint 'access'issue -which is fundamentally same as that described in this thread -but I did find, in using the suggestion herein, and in reading the recommendedMS KB article, that there was an error given in thecmd window when attempting to change the attribute on the TASKS folder as follows: Error given when using 'attrib -s %windir%\tasks' to change atributeis "Parameter format not correct - " Found that using 'attrib /S /D %windir%\tasks -S' instead worked on my W2K3 Enterprise 64Bit AMD Opteron server to change the attribute of the Tasks folder but the above per your text in this KB article did not work as scripted above. The other thing to note is that the WSS_WPG group is a local group local to teh server on which the relevantSharePoint services are running: It is not a Domain Group. That said, I am still experiencing"You are not authorized to view this page"problems when attemtping to open the 'User profiles and properties' link under 'User Profiles and My Sites'in the Home page of the"Shared Services Administration:" page for the SSP of interest hereso there must be another issue to be solved. Ihave noticed that, even after making the changes, as above, to the permissions on the TASKS folder by including the WSS-WPG groupthat there is stillno appearnace of any Search Schedulethere even after updating the 'Search Settings' themselves. Now, after4 days of attempting to solve very annoyingpermissions issues not adequately covered in the "MS published Office SharePoint Server 2007 - Administrator's Companion"I'm now contemplating taking up gardening as a way to make a living instead of doing this stuff!/psb

I was able to resolve this error by assigning the farm service account the security_admin role in SQL Management Studio for the SSP Database & the Search Database